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alienjoker
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Enthusiast

Increase VMFS capacity on boot from SAN datastore - KB query

Hi all,

Query re:  KB2002461. I've successfully increased the VMFS partition size on boot from SAN datastore LUNs using the GUI (rescan and increase), that have their MBR/VMFS partitions listed as "Primary" as per image below (growing the 28.12GB VMFS into 37.12GB) but as part of the prep work, I stumbled across the KB in question.

pastedImage_1.png

Perhaps the wording on the KB is incorrect or I'm interpreting what it means in the wrong way, but would like some clarity if anyone can shed any light?

The KB states the following:-

- Datastore extents within a Primary partition and on a non-Local storage device can be grown into adjacent space using the vSphere Client. For more information, see the Changing VMFS Datastore Properties section of the ESX/ESXi Server Configuration Guide for your version of vSphere.

Yet it also states:-

- Datastore extents within Primary partitions on a Local or Boot storage device cannot be grown into adjacent space using the vSphere Client. This is the default layout for an ESXi 4.x and 5.x installation. This article provides steps for growing an existing VMFS Datastore in a Primary partition to fill available adjacent space on the local boot device.

My initial interpretation for the first bullet point was as there was no explicit mention of "boot", I shouldn't be able to use the GUI. For the second bullet point, I thought that as there was mention of a "Boot storage device", it covered any form of Boot storage (USB/SAN/Local) and so I'd have to go through the documented process. In practice however, increasing the datastore via the GUI worked, so I can only assume that in the context of the KB, Boot storage device relates to Local devices i.e those contained physically within the server via a RAID controller and other such devices like USB?

Just interested to find out if anyone else thinks this is a little misleading or that I shouldn't have been able to perform the operation via the GUI.

Thanks

Andrew

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